Bacterial Resistance

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Commemorative stamp from the series "Celebrate the Century - 1940's"

Infectious diseases were dealt a knockout punch in the 1940's, when antibiotics came into use.

Antibiotics fight bacteria, but don’t affect viruses. It’s important to distinguish between the two. Viruses are very tiny strands of genetic material which can reproduce, but require the presence of a host to survive. They cause illnesses like colds, flu and AIDS. Bacteria are single-celled organisms that, unlike viruses, can reproduce independently of a host and cause such dangerous illnesses as meningitis and tuberculosis.

Antibiotics prevent the reproduction and growth of bacteria in a variety of ways. But bacteria mutate easily, and those with an ability to resist antibiotics survive and reproduce more successfully than others.

The race between bacterial resistance and new antibiotics is a close one. Some potentially fatal infections have now developed resistance to almost all our effective antibiotics. The situation is made worse when patients stop taking antibiotics as soon as they feel better, instead of finishing them all. This leaves a few bacteria lurking in the body, and when they reproduce, they give rise to a higher percentage of strains that have an ability to resist antibiotics.

So next time your Doctor prescribes antibiotics, be sure you really need them and make sure you finish them all.